Between Prison and Probation: Intermediate Punishments in a Rational Sentencing System

• NCJ Number: 123014
• Author(s): N Morris; M Tonry
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 283 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Corrections; Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
• Sale Source: Oxford University Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This book demonstrates that a rational system of intermediate punishments would better serve the community than the current choice between imprisonment and probation.

Abstract

The authors argue that the current sparseness of sentences between the extremes of imprisonment and probation underlies the current crisis of prison overcrowding and unmanageable probation caseloads. The authors propose instead a comprehensive program that relies on a range of sentences, including fines and other financial sanctions, community service, house arrest, intensive probation, closely supervised treatment programs for mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse, and electronic monitoring of offender movement. They rebut the argument that such sentences are sentimental, therapeutic responses to crime that are insufficiently punitive. Overall, the book reasons that systematically implemented and rigorously enforced intermediate punishments can better and more economically serve the community, the victim, and the criminal than the existing system of imprisonment and probation orders. 207 references, subject index. (Publisher summary modified)